A red exhibition room created by red film pasted onto the windows and fluorescent lighting. Azuma arranged flowers in a drum and a toilet - something not usually used as a vase. Although improvised to be created today and disappear the next day, a record was kept of the artwork by taking Polaroid photos of it each day from a fixed-point and displaying these on the wall and on a monitor.

"Red emitted by plants is mysterious/ speaks much and inspires us much" The sentence in the concept sheet shows the "red" he tries to offer is not the usual "red" color but the "red emitted by plants", which must be noticed because we have learned the richness of the red color from flowers/plants. At least for those of us living in modern Japan, the first association with this red color is flowers/plants rather than blood. So we can understand the reason why he colored the room red this time - he returned the red color to its inspiration source, flowers/plants; he has tried to “reset” all the activity and direction of AMPG. In that sense, we see the red space as a womb for giving birth. It is not exaggerated. This must be the place of rebirth for him.

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Born on July 241976 in FukumaFukuoka. Flower shop owner.He came to Tokyo in 1997 to make his debut in a rock band with four members. While engaged in the band activitieshe started to work as a trader in Ota Marketone of the biggest markets of flowers and ornamental plants in Japan.

On March 92009I visited AMKK (Makoto AzumaKaki Kenkyujo) and JARDINS des FLEURSwhich had moved to Minami-Aoyama on January 112009. My aim was to interview Makoto Azumawho had held exhibitions at AMPG twenty-four times and had just finished his photographic exhibition entitled ""AMPG vol.24+1"".

18/MAR/2009-24/MAY/2009Mitsubishi-Jisho ARTIUMThis is a comprehensive exhibition of Azuma’s private gallery activities of twenty-four exhibitions up to the present exhibition of artworks using plants. The gallery was operated by Azuma himself for two years from April 2007 to March 2009 in Kiyosumi-Shirakawa.

03/APR/2009-09/APR/2009ELMO LEWIS Gallery""TOTAL"" is a kind of project exhibitionwhich is also organized as a presentation party of Elmo Lewis Inc a company which has started to import and sell planters made by VesseL USA Inc. Works created by Makoto Azuma using planters and paintings by Kensuke Sasaki are displayed together in this exhibition space

18/MAR/2009-24/MAY/2009Mitsubishi-Jisho ARTIUMMakoto Azuma dislikes nostalgia intensely. When AMPGwhich he had been operating for two yearsclosed in March 2009he said""…this means neither a starting point nor an ending of something""which means that Azuma is looking towards the ""present"" or the ""future"" in creating his works.

15/MAY/2009-07/JUN/2009EYE OF GYREDistortion X Flowers is the long-awaited exhibition for those of us who are familiar with the background of Azumanow a floristas an aspiring youth who left his hometown Fukuoka to come to Tokyo to start his musical career.

26/JUL/2009-Naoshima Bath “I♥湯”What a greedy man I am to seek added value for Japanese-style public baths and hot springsthough it is pleasant enough just to sit in a large bathtub with my legs stretched out. I never go to bath houses since I have a bath at home....

18/SEP/2009-27/SEP/200921_21 DESIGN SIGHTThis show was held in Tokyo as part of the exhibition tour of the ""TOKYO FIBER ’09""which was held first at Triennale Design MuseumMilano around the same term as La Triennale Di Milano in April2009under the direction of the designerKenya Hara.

10/OCT/2009-11/OCT/2009adidas Plants HouseThe plastic greenhouse about which I would like to write here is located in a corner of SakuragaokaSetagaya Ward. We often see that vegetables and fruits are cultivated for foods in greenhouses which are owned by farmers. Neverthelessthis greenhouse is different to that of general in that there are some kinds of trees...

30/OCT/2009-03/NOV/2009CLEAR GALLERYThere is one anecdote. Hideyoshi Toyotomi heard that morning glories were blooming beautifully in Sen no Rikyu’s garden and he wished to visit there. Howeveras soon as reaching Rikyu’s garden...

01/DEC/2009-05/MAY/2010ARK HILLS ARK KARAJAN PLACEIndeedthe title of the works""Bridge of Plants"" (2009)created by Makoto Azumaand their concept of ""working as bridges between cities and nature"" would make you imagine in a relatively-easy way the figure of bridges created by using plants...

Do you know Yukio Nakagawa (born in 1918)? He learned Ikenobo-style Ikebana from his grandmotherand in 1950joined Hakkuto-shathe Ikebana research group presided over by Mirei Shigemorilandscape researcher and gardener. In 1951he became disaffiliated from Ikenobo.

When entering the galleryit smelled slightlybut not because of rotten flowers/plants. As I walked inI saw that something black was scattered on the floor. The smell was caused by firecrackers and the scattered material was pieces of dahlias that had been blown up by them.

A slender green bud of an Easter lily is articulated on the tip of a silver hand clip stuck in the concrete. The theme of this second artworkwhich was created after ""Botanical Sculpture #1 Assemblage"" (February 2008)is ""holding (catching)"".

A vertically long acrylic case. A piece of beef was hanging down from the upper side. Vivid red paphiopedilum was pinned onto the beef that was hanging in the air and gradually changing its color to dark red.

Photos of flowers/plants placed in cups are displayed on the walls. They are on a cup or just put beside a cup. The flowers/plants are waste materialsnot for sale as products. The beauty and the interest of their figure are remarkable.

Green peeping through a brown lump almost vertically rises up against the concrete sidefor a short distance. That thick bud and stem look like a male sexual organhoweverthe pointed end will break into red colors and finally produce a bigbeautiful flower.

Several flowers/plants are combined by using bands within a four meter stage. The first theme of ""Botanical Sculpture"" series is ""Assemblage"". It has massivenessbut the rhythmical arrangement is also fun.

In the middle of NovemberChristmas trees can be seen here and there. The colorfully decoratedglittery trees are welcomed by people. It is the busiest season for Azumaa flower shop ownerand he often used to accept the job of providing trees.

Japanese cedar reaching a height of 2m and a weight of 200kgLeucobryum juniperoideum. The planters used to carry each plant move around the exhibition room at a speed of 2km per hoursometimes rotating or turning around by crashing into each other.

Over twenty branches of Japanese plums are set out in a decorative pattern in a basin in the gallery. Banding bands used for ""Botanical Sculpture #1 Assemblage"" (February 2008) are also used herebut basically the branches support each other.

It was not only me who felt amazed on entering the gallery. Azuma did not try too hard because of the last AMPG exhibitionnor did he fall into sentimentality and simply enjoy looking back over the past two years.

This is the first work for Azuma of a single flower in a Hasami-yaki vase. It has a long process to have arrived to this pottery form through the conceptual stage in 2005 and the announcement at AMPG in 2009.